Govt.: Iran’s $100 billion ‘fully released’
The government says Iran can now access more than $100 billion in frozen assets after the implementation of a nuclear agreement last month, according to islamicinvitationturkey.com.
“These assets have fully been released and we can use them,” Government spokesman Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht told Iran’s Alalam television network on Sunday night.
Much of the money from sales of the Iranian oil has been piling up in banks in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey over the past few years.
Those countries have been holding the funds in escrow because sanctions imposed by the West in 2012 prevented the Islamic Republic from repatriating them.
To move the money back home, Iran had to use international banks but they were unable to process Iranian transactions since the country was cut off from the SWIFT financial-transactions system.
Nine more Iranian banks were to re-connect to the SWIFT early Monday, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif said.
However, the bulk of the roughly $100 billion will not be sent home. State officials are cognizant of inflationary impacts which a sudden flush of money of this magnitude could have on the economy.
Iran is likely to move the funds into various directions abroad for use in different purchases or investments.
Nobakht said, “There is no need to bring the money in. It is likely that a certain amount which is needed is brought in. But altogether, it is not necessary because we can use it in our (overseas bank) accounts.”
The spokesman also said much of the money released belongs to the CBI and the National Development Fund.
“The government’s share is about six to seven billion dollars but assets belonging the Central Bank and the National Development Fund are much higher,” Nobakht said.